supplementary resources: books, links, and other media
Aotearoa history
The Aotearoa History Show. Radio New Zealand podcast hosted by William Ray, Māni Dunlop & Leigh-Marama McLachlan.
The Citizens’ Handbook. Radio New Zealand webseries hosted by the White Man Behind A Desk, Robbie Nicholls. Earlier episodes focus on precolonial history and then colonisation in a blunt but comedic way.
Kaupapa on the Couch. A webseries hosted by The Spinoff’s Leonie Hayden (Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara, Ngāti Rango). This episode covers He Whakaputanga in a highly casual and accessible way.
The Contra Proferentum rule in the reports of the Waitangi Tribunal by Benjamin Suter is somewhat academic, but don’t let the fact that it’s a “thesis” dissuade you! It’s only 30 pages long, not hundreds. Quite usefully, it analyses the Waitangi Tribunal’s decision to use contra proferentum, a widely accepted principle in international law, to determine that Te Tiriti o Waitangi, not The Treaty of Waitangi, is the only truly legitimate document, and that te iwi Māori therefore did not cede sovereignty in legal terms.
Auckland University’s Māori Studies resources. This webpage is itself a handy resource hub for researching whakapapa Māori. From trying to see if your own family might have a Māori lineage to learning the iwi of a rangatira your ancestor interacted with, there’s a wealth of resources here that can cover that ground.
Whakapapa Pākehā in general
Imagining Decolonisation should be read in its entirety by everyone, but there are two chapters in particular within it which pay attention to and seek to make some meaning out of whakapapa Pākehā:
”How Finance Colonised Aotearoa: A Concise Counter-History” by Catherine Grace Cumming is a long-ish, somewhat academic article, but well worth persevering with! It details the extensive role that finance and economics played in setting the stage for colonisation, and why we need to pay attention to finance and capitalist economics if we are ever to effectively challenge colonisation.
“Settler Colonialism and the Primitive Accumulation of Capital”, chapter 2 of Evan Te Ahu Poata-Smith’s PhD thesis. An even longer and even more academic read on how the development of capitalism in Europe set the stage for settler colonialism in Aotearoa. Talks a lot about the “surplus population” in the UK that was “exported’ to support the colonisation process.
This Pākehā Life: An Unsettled Memoir by Alison Jones is an up-to-date interrogation of what Pākehā identity entails, and what being in relation to Aotearoa as Pākehā means. A really cool chapter in here details some amazing and highly unexpected discoveries when she does her own family history research!
The Forgotten Coast by Richard Shaw is a grittier reflection on Pākehā legacies, as he connects several generations of his family from Ireland to participating in the sacking of Parihaka, all the way to the present.
…and an additional article by Shaw published in The Conversation and e-tangata reflecting on the reception to The Forgotten Coast and how that reception has evolved his thinking.
English history/heritage
The Making of the English Working Class by E.P. Thompson is an absolute doozy of a text (over 900 pages!), and very academically dense, but is a widely regarded classic. It is very revealing of how little actual English culture/history/heritage we are actually taught, and how much is just whiteness and capitalism.
Scottish/Irish Gaelic history/heritage
A few shorter web articles that go deeper into the concept of dùthchas:
Letters to Mac-Talla from John Munro: A Cape Breton Gael in New Zealand 1894-1902 by Bev Brett and translated by John Alick MacPherson is a treasure. A series of letters scanned and then translated by a Gael who was part of the Gaelic settlement of Waipū, corresponding with the Gaelic newsletter Mac-Talla in Nova Scotia. Particularly notable for a passage which identifies common ground between Gaels and Māori!
Scottishness and Irishness in New Zealand since 1840 by Angela McCarthy is a go-to book (albeit hard to find) for a serious look at what made Scottish and Irish Pākehā distinct from the Anglo-Saxon norm. Includes a chapter on Celtic language use (see below).
Ireland in an Imperial World: Citizenship, Opportunism, and Subversion is a collection of essays tackling the complicated relationship Irish people had and have with British imperialism. Includes a chapter specifically about this relationship in the Aotearoa/New Zealand context, as well as one on the Royal Armed Constabulary in Ireland which became the model for the New Zealand version.
“Ulster Protestants in New Zealand: A Bibliographic Essay” is an academic journal article by Gerard Horn, but is worth tracking down if you want to learn more about the Ulster Scot/North Irish in Aotearoa.
Any of Iain MacKinnon’s works are worth the read (in Dani’s opinion anyway; in truth they’re quite academic, and stuck behind journal paywalls anyway!), but to get a feel for what they’re like:
Witch hunts
Caliban and the Witch by Sylvia Federici is a landmark text that looks at the European witch hunts through a Marxist lens to understand their role in the development of both capitalism and patriarchy, as well as white supremacy less directly. With the caveat that the author has more recently shown some TERF/transphobic inclinations, it isn’t really noticeable in her earlier work like this book, and so it is still a really valuable read for gaining a stronger appreciation for our ancestors of resistance who fought back against capitalism right at its beginning in the mid 1000’s.
“Witch-Hunting in Celtic Societies” by Ronald Hutton is a dense, academic, paywalled read, but rewarding in its efforts to explain why the witch hunts played out so differently in the Celtic worlds (or at least the Gaelic ones) than other parts of Europe.
Witches, Midwives and Nurses: A History of Women Healers by Barbara Ehrenreich and Dierdre English. Classic 1973 text.
Celtic languages
“Language and accent”, a chapter from Angela McCarthy’s book mentioned above, details the early history of Celtic language use in Aotearoa.
“The Scottish Gaelic Language”, an essay in John MacInnes’ Dùthchas nan Gàidheal, details the history of the Scottish Gaelic language, Gàidhlig, and by extension the history of Scottish Gaels as a people.
Indigenous Language Revitalisation in Aotearoa New Zealand & Alba Scotland is a PhD by Catriona Elizabeth Timms, who is both Māori and Gàidheal and uses these joint perspectives to compare the intertwined co-development of the language revitalisation movements for Gàidhlig in Alba Scotland and te reo Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Other European Pākehā
New Zealand’s First Refugees: Pahiatua’s Polish Children by A Manterys, S Zawada, and S Manterys documents some of the first earliest substantive European migrations from outside of Britain and Ireland in the 20th century. Might be of interest if this is part of your background--they were largely resettled in Te Whanganui-ā-Tara!
Critical family history research
“Roots Deeper Than Whiteness” by White Awake’s David Dean is written for an American context, but powerfully details how European peoples came to have our cultural identities erased and replaced with whiteness, especially in the settler-colonial context. White Awake is another great folk school which also comes recommended by the Gathering at the Gate crew!
Christine Sleeter's Critical Family History Research website, is an amazing resource (albeit another American one) with many dimensions. She provides some of the basic tools for going about family history research in a way that looks out for and is critical of the ways capitalism, whiteness, colonialism, patriarchy etc have shaped our lives through the lives of our ancestors.
“Reverberating Historical Privilege of a “Middling” Sort of Settler Family” by Avril Bell takes Christine Sleeter’s tools and applies them to a Pākehā context. Published in an academic journal, but free to access and easier to read than most!
The Aotearoa History Show. Radio New Zealand podcast hosted by William Ray, Māni Dunlop & Leigh-Marama McLachlan.
The Citizens’ Handbook. Radio New Zealand webseries hosted by the White Man Behind A Desk, Robbie Nicholls. Earlier episodes focus on precolonial history and then colonisation in a blunt but comedic way.
Kaupapa on the Couch. A webseries hosted by The Spinoff’s Leonie Hayden (Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara, Ngāti Rango). This episode covers He Whakaputanga in a highly casual and accessible way.
The Contra Proferentum rule in the reports of the Waitangi Tribunal by Benjamin Suter is somewhat academic, but don’t let the fact that it’s a “thesis” dissuade you! It’s only 30 pages long, not hundreds. Quite usefully, it analyses the Waitangi Tribunal’s decision to use contra proferentum, a widely accepted principle in international law, to determine that Te Tiriti o Waitangi, not The Treaty of Waitangi, is the only truly legitimate document, and that te iwi Māori therefore did not cede sovereignty in legal terms.
Auckland University’s Māori Studies resources. This webpage is itself a handy resource hub for researching whakapapa Māori. From trying to see if your own family might have a Māori lineage to learning the iwi of a rangatira your ancestor interacted with, there’s a wealth of resources here that can cover that ground.
Whakapapa Pākehā in general
Imagining Decolonisation should be read in its entirety by everyone, but there are two chapters in particular within it which pay attention to and seek to make some meaning out of whakapapa Pākehā:
- “Colonisation Sucks for Everyone” by Rebecca Kiddle, and
- “Pākehā Doing the Work of Decolonisation” by Amanda Thomas
”How Finance Colonised Aotearoa: A Concise Counter-History” by Catherine Grace Cumming is a long-ish, somewhat academic article, but well worth persevering with! It details the extensive role that finance and economics played in setting the stage for colonisation, and why we need to pay attention to finance and capitalist economics if we are ever to effectively challenge colonisation.
“Settler Colonialism and the Primitive Accumulation of Capital”, chapter 2 of Evan Te Ahu Poata-Smith’s PhD thesis. An even longer and even more academic read on how the development of capitalism in Europe set the stage for settler colonialism in Aotearoa. Talks a lot about the “surplus population” in the UK that was “exported’ to support the colonisation process.
This Pākehā Life: An Unsettled Memoir by Alison Jones is an up-to-date interrogation of what Pākehā identity entails, and what being in relation to Aotearoa as Pākehā means. A really cool chapter in here details some amazing and highly unexpected discoveries when she does her own family history research!
The Forgotten Coast by Richard Shaw is a grittier reflection on Pākehā legacies, as he connects several generations of his family from Ireland to participating in the sacking of Parihaka, all the way to the present.
…and an additional article by Shaw published in The Conversation and e-tangata reflecting on the reception to The Forgotten Coast and how that reception has evolved his thinking.
English history/heritage
The Making of the English Working Class by E.P. Thompson is an absolute doozy of a text (over 900 pages!), and very academically dense, but is a widely regarded classic. It is very revealing of how little actual English culture/history/heritage we are actually taught, and how much is just whiteness and capitalism.
Scottish/Irish Gaelic history/heritage
A few shorter web articles that go deeper into the concept of dùthchas:
- Dùthchas: the word that describes understanding of land, people and culture
- TOBAR AN DUALCHAIS: what can proverbs tell us about dùthchas?
Letters to Mac-Talla from John Munro: A Cape Breton Gael in New Zealand 1894-1902 by Bev Brett and translated by John Alick MacPherson is a treasure. A series of letters scanned and then translated by a Gael who was part of the Gaelic settlement of Waipū, corresponding with the Gaelic newsletter Mac-Talla in Nova Scotia. Particularly notable for a passage which identifies common ground between Gaels and Māori!
Scottishness and Irishness in New Zealand since 1840 by Angela McCarthy is a go-to book (albeit hard to find) for a serious look at what made Scottish and Irish Pākehā distinct from the Anglo-Saxon norm. Includes a chapter on Celtic language use (see below).
Ireland in an Imperial World: Citizenship, Opportunism, and Subversion is a collection of essays tackling the complicated relationship Irish people had and have with British imperialism. Includes a chapter specifically about this relationship in the Aotearoa/New Zealand context, as well as one on the Royal Armed Constabulary in Ireland which became the model for the New Zealand version.
“Ulster Protestants in New Zealand: A Bibliographic Essay” is an academic journal article by Gerard Horn, but is worth tracking down if you want to learn more about the Ulster Scot/North Irish in Aotearoa.
Any of Iain MacKinnon’s works are worth the read (in Dani’s opinion anyway; in truth they’re quite academic, and stuck behind journal paywalls anyway!), but to get a feel for what they’re like:
- “Colonialism and the Highland Clearances” reviews historical evidence which helps demonstrate that the Highland Clearances count as colonialism, not just another wave of enclosures
- “Crofters: indigenous people of the Highlands and Islands” makes the case that the present-day Scottish Gaels should be classed as an Indigenous people
- “Plantation Slavery and Land Ownership in the West Highlands and Islands: Legacies and Lessons” demonstrates how even the Gaelic world was not immune from complicity in the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
Witch hunts
Caliban and the Witch by Sylvia Federici is a landmark text that looks at the European witch hunts through a Marxist lens to understand their role in the development of both capitalism and patriarchy, as well as white supremacy less directly. With the caveat that the author has more recently shown some TERF/transphobic inclinations, it isn’t really noticeable in her earlier work like this book, and so it is still a really valuable read for gaining a stronger appreciation for our ancestors of resistance who fought back against capitalism right at its beginning in the mid 1000’s.
“Witch-Hunting in Celtic Societies” by Ronald Hutton is a dense, academic, paywalled read, but rewarding in its efforts to explain why the witch hunts played out so differently in the Celtic worlds (or at least the Gaelic ones) than other parts of Europe.
Witches, Midwives and Nurses: A History of Women Healers by Barbara Ehrenreich and Dierdre English. Classic 1973 text.
Celtic languages
“Language and accent”, a chapter from Angela McCarthy’s book mentioned above, details the early history of Celtic language use in Aotearoa.
“The Scottish Gaelic Language”, an essay in John MacInnes’ Dùthchas nan Gàidheal, details the history of the Scottish Gaelic language, Gàidhlig, and by extension the history of Scottish Gaels as a people.
Indigenous Language Revitalisation in Aotearoa New Zealand & Alba Scotland is a PhD by Catriona Elizabeth Timms, who is both Māori and Gàidheal and uses these joint perspectives to compare the intertwined co-development of the language revitalisation movements for Gàidhlig in Alba Scotland and te reo Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Other European Pākehā
New Zealand’s First Refugees: Pahiatua’s Polish Children by A Manterys, S Zawada, and S Manterys documents some of the first earliest substantive European migrations from outside of Britain and Ireland in the 20th century. Might be of interest if this is part of your background--they were largely resettled in Te Whanganui-ā-Tara!
Critical family history research
“Roots Deeper Than Whiteness” by White Awake’s David Dean is written for an American context, but powerfully details how European peoples came to have our cultural identities erased and replaced with whiteness, especially in the settler-colonial context. White Awake is another great folk school which also comes recommended by the Gathering at the Gate crew!
Christine Sleeter's Critical Family History Research website, is an amazing resource (albeit another American one) with many dimensions. She provides some of the basic tools for going about family history research in a way that looks out for and is critical of the ways capitalism, whiteness, colonialism, patriarchy etc have shaped our lives through the lives of our ancestors.
“Reverberating Historical Privilege of a “Middling” Sort of Settler Family” by Avril Bell takes Christine Sleeter’s tools and applies them to a Pākehā context. Published in an academic journal, but free to access and easier to read than most!